One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Saturday, April 09, 2016

“Battle
for Freedom,” the final episode of Jason of Star Command (1978 – 1979)
really pulls out all the stops. The
episode features several new miniatures, a grand space battle (with more space
craft per shot than we’ve seen before…), some terrific character interaction,
and, finally, even a sense of resolution.

In
this installment, Commander Stone (John Russell) is intercepted by Dragos while
en route to Fleet Command to accept a medal for his outstanding service. Dragos holds Stone hostage and informs Jason,
now acting Commander of Star Command, that Stone will not be released unless
Jason cedes the peaceful planet Chryton to the tyrant.

Chryton’s
prime consul, Jo-neen, visiting Star Command, officially requests protection
for her planet. Jason attempts to stall
Dragos, leaving Parsafoot in command while he searches the D-2 Star System for
Stone. Unfortunately, the planets in
that system have strange effects on humanoids. Jason and Samantha take an antidote created by Parsafoot and head out to
rescue their superior officer.

On
the planet, Jason and Samantha find Commander Stone, but he has lost his memory. Jason is able to help Stone recover his
identity. In part he does so by reminding Stone of Dragos – the man who forced Stone’s people from their
planet -- and in part by reminding him that he is “the best commanding officer Star Command has ever had.”

As
Jason, Samantha and Commander Stone leave the planet in the D2 system,
Parsafoot launches a fleet of Star Command drones to meet Dragos’ attack fleet
in space and defend Chryton. It’s a
rout, but the defeated Dragos has one last trick up his sleeve. He attempts to use a deadly anti-matter ray or
“projector” to blast Jason’s Star-Fire into another dimension. Jason uses a nearby red dwarf to reflect the
beam, and Dragos instead is cast away into another reality “for a long, long time.”

You
might expect a Saturday morning’s kid show, at the end of a long season, to do
a bottle show or something rather modest, having run out of budgetary
resources. Instead, Jason of Star Command goes
out in grand style, with a whole host of new special effects and miniatures. For the first time, we see the unmanned Star
Command drones, and by the half-dozen, no less. We also see Dragos’ fearsome battle stations in orbit of Chryton.

And,
of course, we get the final tango between the deadly Dragonstar and Jason’s zippy
Star-Fire. There are more miniature
shots – and of greater complexity –
in this twenty-minute segment than in the last several episodes of the season
put together.

Although
certainly the intention would have been to have another season of episodes, “Battle
for Freedom” provides a nice sense of closure to the Saturday morning
series. The socially-inept Parsafoot
begins a romantic relationship with Jo-neen, and more importantly, Jason and
Commander Stone finally seem comfortable with another. They have some nice banter in “Battle for
Freedom,” and come to an acceptance, you might say, of their different way of
doing things. They started out as uncomfortable allies at
the beginning of season two, and end the same season with a strong sense of
mutual respect. In this regard, the cast
change from James Doohan as Commander Canarvin to John Russell as Commander Stone
really works in the series’ favor. So
much so, in fact, I’m inclined to agree with Jason’s explicit assessment: Stone
is the better commander.

And,
of course, Dragos is finally defeated in this valedictory episode. As the villain disappears, shouting
maniacally “some day…Jason…” it’s
clear he could return, had the series come back. But as the final episode of the show, the
defeat of Dragos also plays as a final victory for the heroes. The scourge of the universe is gone.

Watching
Jason
of Star Command today, it never lets you forget it was made for
children. The stories are simple and
straight-forward, so much so that they become rather boring at times for an
adult. Yet -- from time to time -- the character
interaction is really great, particularly as it pertains to Stone and
Jason. More to the point, the special
effects remain astonishing examples of 1970s post-Star Wars state of the
art. They compare favorably, in fact,
with prime time efforts such as Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979) and
Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981).

I
can’t say I wouldn’t have appreciated more thematic depth in a lot of these second
season episodes, but again…these shows were designed for kids, and they're fun. Adios, Jason!

3 comments:

John excellent review of the final episode “Battle for Freedom” of the series. As a final episode, it delivers all the best of the series. As usual the special effects miniatures, including the Star Command Drones, rivals all the prime-time. The Star Command Drones adds to the production designs and yet another reason why I wanted a Space Academy-Star Command Technical Manual book to have been published.

Thank you for all of your write ups on this series; I'm actually sorry you have reached the end of it. Though I've known of the show for years, I never saw it (it's just barely ahead of my time by its dates, but I guess it never got the reruns of other, even earlier, Filmation shows). Because I knew its connection to [i]Space Academy[/i], I have thought of this as more of a "kid-driven" show, and pictured Jason as a younger character (though I've seen pictures, so that just shows my cognitive disconnect), but it certainly sounds like an exciting swashbuckling show. I guess I should track this one down. Thank you for the reviews.

Hugh: For some reason I never saw an episode of the show either, even though I was born in 1970 which makes me exactly the right age for it! I remember seeing promos for it (and Space Academy) but never caught either show. It must be that I had something going on outside the house regularly during their airtime. Nice to be reminded of it again. Oddly enough, I specifically remember seeing at least one episode of The Starlost as one of the group of kids in the rec room at a party all our parents were attending. In that case John's review reminding me of a series didn't pan out so well: just like him I found it almost tragic in how promising it started out and how far it fell. The Star Command and Space Academy shows actually turned out to be more watchable now. The special effects really were impressive and as a kid it was the space ship design that could always make me love a show no matter the rest of its flaws as long as the ships were cool. I think it was because my friends and I would use the world of a show to make up our own adventures when playing.

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

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